--- En Espanol-Ingles@..., "Marcelo Eugenio Shulman"
<marcelo_shulman@y...> escribió:
> What's your opinion about those computer translator programs like
> Babylon, Globalink, Power Translator, etc., etc. ?

Hello Marcelo

I have Babylon installed on our computers. I really do like it. The
most recent version has a "quirk," but the value of it overrides the
annoyance. It is, here a little slow. But if you have high speed
internet, speed should not be a problem.

As far as the computer translation programs, I think they do have
value, but they are inferior to the human brain. A couple of years
ago, I installed one, but I realized immediately that it had to be
used very carefully. The sentences can be very inaccurate. I don't
know if a particular program is better than the others. You would
have to prove to me that this is dependable, because based on what I
have seen, it is not.

If I am trying to say something in Spanish, and I am at a loss for
how to express it, I will use the translation program to get me
started. But what I really rely on is my Harper Collins unabridged
Spanish/English dictionary. I live in a world of English. So I
depend mostly on my books, and to a lesser degree on internet radio
programs.

But let me say this in defense of computer translation programs. The
one that I have has a dictionary. All you have to do is to type in a
word, and the meaning automatically comes us. Now this is the beauty
of computer translation! In the old days of language study, each
word had to be looked up in a dictionary. This was very, very slow.
Also, you can paste in a section of something you want translated,
and you will have something that will give you the main ideas of what
you need to read, even if it is not a perfect translation due to the
awkward nature of this type of translation.

Also, with Babylon, you can download dictionaries to your computer,
and it works like the translation software in that it will define a
single word. I have all my Babylon dictionaries online.

Also, you can go to http://www.wordreference.com
and download their tool for looking up words. This is similar to
Babylon, but I don't think it covers as many languages as does
Babylon.

Hope this helps a little.

Sue